two
Queens which followed it might well force Catharine of Medicis to seek
Scottish aid against England, and the Scottish Queen would thus have
secured that alliance with a great power which the English Catholics
demanded before they would rise at her call. At home troubles were
gathering fast around her. Veil her hopes as she might, the anxiety with
which she had followed the struggle of her kindred had not been lost on
the Protestant leaders, and it is probable that Knox at any rate had
learned something of her secret correspondence with the Pope and the
Guises. The Scotch Calvinists were stirred by the peril of their
brethren in France, and the zeal of the preachers was roused by a
revival of the old worship in Clydesdale and by the neglect of the
Government to suppress it. In the opening of 1563 they resolved "to put
to their own hands," and without further plaint to Queen or Council to
carry out "the punishment that God had appointed to idolaters in his
law." In Mary's eyes such a resolve was rebellion. But her remonstrances
only drew a more formal doctrine of resistance from Knox. "The sword of
justice, madam, is God's," said the stern preacher, "and is given to
princes and rulers for an end; which, if they transgress, they that in
the fear of God execute judgements when God has commanded offend not
God. Neither yet sin they that bridle kings who strike innocent men in
their rage." The Queen was forced to look on while nearly fifty
Catholics, some of them high ecclesiastics, were indicted and sent to
prison for celebrating mass in Paisley and Ayrshire.

[Sidenote: Peace with France.]

The zeal of the preachers was only heightened by the coolness of the
Lords. A Scotch Parliament which assembled in the summer of 1563
contented itself with securing the spoilers in their possession of the
Church lands, but left the Acts passed in 1560 for the establishment of
Protestantism unconfirmed as before. Such a silence Knox regarded as
treason to the faith. He ceased to have any further intercourse with
Murray, and addressed a burning appeal to the Lords, "Will ye betray
God's cause when ye have it in your hands to establish it as ye please?
The Queen, ye say, will not agree with you. Ask ye of her that which by
God's word ye may justly require, and if she will not agree with ye in
God, ye are not bound to agree with her in the devil!" The inaction of
the nobles proved the strength which Mary drew from the attitude of
Fran